Hungarian Japanese Model Train Club

[Kb4iuj]

Those 2M62 are not cheap ! About $165 up in Chicago, wonder what Hobby Search could sell them for ?

 

Wonder when Kato is going to roll out some of the Russia locomotives ?

[kvp]

Wonder when Kato is going to roll out some of the Russia locomotives?

Kato has been producing european prototype locomotives for some time, but usually only standard or recently meter gauge ones, centered around Switzerland and western Europe, including some british prototype ones. They don't really build any east european or russian trains.

 

The Hungarian M61 was produced by Kato as it was used all over europe and it's one of the more well known european locomotives based on the US F units. They were used in many western and northern european countries and as a single east block exception, in Hungary. The M62 was a soviet design and it was created for Hungary in the Luhansk locomotive works, east Ukraine (in the Donbass area), but later many east block countries ordered them as they were cheap (and highly unreliable i would add). There isn't a large western european market for them as for the M61 Nohab-s and even the M62-s were only produced as part of an east european series from Fleischmann. The czechoslovakian T478 'diving goggles' will be the next one for 2016. Actually these are so small series, that even the lettering is only inkjet printed on them instead of pad printing.

[cteno4]

Those 2M62 are not cheap ! About $165 up in Chicago, wonder what Hobby Search could sell them for ?

 

Generally the stuff kato produces for European and us markets is more expensive when sold in Japan. The lemke (kato) plaster and theure tamper (which is also found in Japan) made for the euro market was like 2x the price when later sold in Japan!

 

Jeff

[Kb4iuj]

Maybe somebody will make a Shapeways Body out of the 2M62, which a m420 will easily be able to glue down the body. Or a AC4400CW.... Hence, the body will have to be lengthened and they can call it a "Super 2M62".

[IST]

Last day in this year in the club, including some Kato trains on the temporary test layout and an Orient express on the modules. Plus you can see the brand new 5047 series DMU by Arnold in GySEV livery and a hand made, unfinished M40 type diesel loco.

 

        

[Blobby]

Today was the day when the Hungarian Japanese Model Train Club was unoffically founded. The club's first meeting took place at the weekly model train market. To everyone's suprise all known members (IST and myself) were present and also some 2nd hand japanese trains.

 

The club's current plan is to put together a modular Japanese layout (either suburban/urban/tram/shinkansen or all of the above) and have fun while doing it. The module standard will be h-track (hungarian tracks) also known as make something that works for everyone.

 

This topic is open for suggestions and ideas. We also don't really know what we have and what we really want to build, so it's a good time to find these out.

Good luck to the pair of you - wish I lived a bit closer!

[IST]

Today was a club day, although not in the club room but on some real trains. We went to trainspotting with kvp and a friend on the following route: Budapest - Győr - Veszprém - Budapest. It was all snowy in the hills between Győr and Veszprém, so it was a very pleasant trip. You can see some pictures here:

 

http://vonatmagazin.blog.hu/2016/01/02/evnyito_vonatozas_a_bakonyban

[cteno4]

Very pretty with the snow!

[IST]

Today I started to build my next Japanese T-trak modul, that will be Tomytech based fishing ponds, so nothing special. The frame has been already built, now I just glued down some leaf grist (?) that will be the basis of the grass.

           

 

Waiting to dry...

[IST]

Another T-trak module is under construction. This will be a small city module with Tomytec houses/shops on it. I tried to paint the Kato track to look a little bit better, I am curious how it will look like after drying and cleaning the not needed paint from the top of the rail. Road was made from styrene sheet and Tomytec pavement effect paint, I have to weather it also after drying.

 

[katoftw]

Advice...

1. Do not paint near or on the joiners.

2. Remove unwanted paint before it drys.

[kvp]

My advice yesterday was: at least do not paint under the joiners...

[katoftw]

Even if you don't paint under the joiners.  They move around still.  And may move onto a painted section.  Best to keep a small window or tolerance around the joiners.

[IST]

Unwanted paint from the top of the rail was removed.

Next time we will check if the operation is smooth or not. Let's see!

[kvp]

Already checked. (arrived 45 minutes later) It works but imho the flange sides should be cleaned too. Otherwise the wheels pick up the paint. (at least my 103 series test train did)

[kvp]

The best way to get rust off the rails? Run trains on them!

Testing some work in progress ttrak modules. The missing corner is drying, so it's not a special new style ttrak module. :)

[IST]

Spent some time in the past few weeks in the club, here is the result for one modul, but the others are also under construction:

 

Tracks were glued down and I made some marks where the road will be.

 

 

The result of the usage of some sand, white glue and water in the closer area. On the other side of the rail there is leaf grist instead of sand.

 

 

Grass arrived from a local train shop. It was a little bit messy due to not this modul was the only one to have some grass.

 

 

I bought Tomytec's rice field a month ago, so now I could cut the right form and glued it down. I was really worried about how it will look like, will it be good enough to use it and won't it differ to much from the other part of this mini layout.

 

 

To eliminate the sharp contrast and the gap between the rice field and the grass area, I installed bush to the edge of the field. I have bush in 3 different colors, so tried to mix them.

 

 

One of our club members helped me to use bigger bush and different turfs to have more detailed looking of the grass, this was the result:

 

 

And the modul as it looks like now. I will add a cycling man to the road, will try to weather the road. Sadly I do not find figures for the rice field, it seems to me it is in sold out status in every shop which I know.

 

Edited February 12, 2016 by IST

[cteno4]

Nice work IST!

 

Jeff

[kvp]

Small ttrak test with the small radius kato curves (using 2 empty modules as support):

 

and a longer freight train on the large curve of the club layout:

[velotrain]

Sadly I do not find figures for the rice field, it seems to me it is in sold out status in every shop which I know.

 

 

You will need to wait until June, but HS announced this yesterday:

 

http://www.1999.co.jp/eng/10372928

[cteno4]

I guess tomytec is only re-releasing the figure sets in single paint combos now. Funny the farmer sets were jsut around a couple of months ago, now poof everywhere.

 

Jeff

Edited February 13, 2016 by cteno4

[IST]

Thanks for the info! It is a little bit weird for me that the rice fields from Tomytec are still available, but without any figures.

Nevertheless I found a Tomytec 002 set on eBay, let's see if it will arrive until end of March.

[velotrain]

It is a little bit weird for me that the rice fields from Tomytec are still available, but without any figures.

 

 

I don't know why ;-)

[kvp]

The reason might be that many peope choose to scratchbuild the fields and they only needed the figures. Those fields seems to be similar to the headmarks on hs.

[cteno4]

The three farmer sets were the first figure sets tomytec did way way back. They have been in stock a lot of the time for like the last 7-8 years at least (actually more than other figure sets). The rice fields came out a couple three years ago so not new. I think they just let the stock run out on the old figure sets as the new re-run of the single new re-release series is coming out. Japanese train manufacturers don't keep everything in stock all the times. There are gaps in production reruns that can last years or never happen again. Different business model than model train companies in the states. I've heard for a number of reasons deep inventories are not the way Japanese finances and businesses work and where jsut in time manufacturing came from.

 

Jeff